


In the Light of the Moon and the Sun

by LighthouseFeminism



Category: The Bold Type
Genre: Adena is desperately trying not to fall in love with a straight girl, F/F, Falling In Love, Kat is a nervous wreck around Adena, Not so Hetero, Out and Proud Hetero, fluff mostly, not smut, pretty girls falling in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2018-12-07 22:24:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11633172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LighthouseFeminism/pseuds/LighthouseFeminism
Summary: It all started out as just part of the job. And if getting this spectacular woman's pictures into Scarlet Magazine meant helping her smuggle sex toys into her home country then Kat was willing to do her part.But something is making her change her mind about Adena. Something about the way she laughs when they joke about how silly this looks. Something about the way she smiles when they talk about her art.Something about the moonlight as it bathed her in a soft silver glow.





	1. Something about the Moonlight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still new to writing fanfiction, so let me know if you have any tips! Thanks. :)  
>    
> A short, three chapter fic about how Kat and Adena fell in love.  
> Chapter 1: When Kat finds out she might not be so straight.  
> Chapter 2: When Adena finds out she might be falling for Kat  
> Chapter 3: They find out they are both right
> 
> Each one will be taking a deeper look at scenes in the show.

Kat liked to think that she was not easily surprised. She prided herself on being perceptive and being able to read situations. That was, until she met Adena El-Amin. Something about the woman threw Kat off of her game, and she wasn’t sure what it was. And the next thing she knew, she was spending her friday night helping a renowned muslim lesbian photographer hide sex toys in her luggage.

At least that one was a fun surprise.

She arrived at Adena’s apartment at around eight, a bag of takeout in one hand and a bag of sex toys in the other. Adena opened the door with a smile.

“Kat, it’s good to see you! Please, come in.” She led the way up to her apartment and held the door open for Kat to enter. Her apartment was an enormous studio space, and it was covered in candles. Kat's eyebrows knit together in a look of confusion, and she puts the bags down on the coffee table before turning back to Adena.

"What's with all the candles? It didn't look like there was a power outage outside." Adena locked the door behind her and sighed.

"The landlady said she was getting someone to come fix some of the faulty wiring in the building, but that was a few days ago, but..." she said with a smirk and motioned up to her ceiling. "So I am left with candles," she makes a sweeping motion with her arms, "and a floor lamp." She points to the single lamp by the couch. She sits down on the L-shaped couch, opening the bag of takeout, and grabbing her food.

"So, tell me about these friends of yours. I have to make sure these aren't going to the wrong people..." Kat says, with a very fake serious face. Adena smiles and shrugs as she starts getting her suitcase out."Well. We can't risk that can we..." Adena starts unpacking the bags, describing these incredible women as she does. Talks about growing up with them, learning with them, being inspired by them.

And Kat's breath catches in her throat. 

Kat wasn't sure why - she had expected some kind of inspirational story behind Adena's art - but something about the way she said it made Kat's heart race. Something about the way that she wrung her hands together as she spoke. Something about the way a smile found its way to her lips as she kept talking. Something about the way that the moonlight bathed her in a silver glow. She just looked so... so...

Beautiful. She looked so very beautiful as she sat on the floor talking about her art, face lit up by passion and candlelight. So beautiful that when Adena looks at her, Kat’s heart skipped a beat.

Her brain was on autopilot, and she said something without thinking, but Adena just smiles at her and laughs and stopped her heart again. Even when Kat managed to remember to breathe, her heart refused to slow down and the butterflies in her stomach would not stop doing flips. She blinked a few times, unsure what that feeling was. She'd met all kinds of incredible people in her line of work at Scarlet. Heck, she'd managed to organize the magazine's interview with Michelle Obama (her personal Idol) and she'd never felt like this (though she did almost pass out at the end. She was still trying to convince Jane and Sutton that it was overexertion and not Kat getting too excited).

"Can I ask you a personal question?" Kat snapped out of her daze, and looked at Adena. She smiled and pushed her thoughts to the back of her mind.

"Uh, I don't know what the signals are like in your culture, but in mine, when we spend an evening helping someone take apart vibrators to smuggle into a foreign country, it's a pretty good indicator that it's okay to get personal..."

"What's your sexual orientation?"

Oh. That kind of personal. Adena smiled at her like it was- _well it was normal for her to ask, she's a lesbian_. Kat kicked herself mentally, and just blurted it out.

"Out and proud Hetero. Sorry." Kat cringed internally. Who would say it like that?

"It wasn't a come-on." Kat's heart picked up its pace once more, and she scrambled to explain herself.

"Oh, it would be okay if it was. I could do worse, and, you know, honestly, I actually really get the whole girl thing," Kat could feel herself digging her hole deeper, but she couldn't stop talking. It wasn't a come-on. Why did she say sorry? Did she want it to be a come on...? "I do, but, you know, for me, I could just never get past this." Kat said, motioning to her privates. Wow, nice save Kat, way to go. Top tier.

Adena frowned at her and put down what she was holding.

"Well, for me, it's never just been about 'this', " she said, mimicking Kat's crude motion, "It's, uh... it's more about this." and she put her hand over her heart. Damn. How was she so good at this? Why did Kat have to be the one who was frazzled and unable to think. Trying to come up with something to save her, she made a pouty face.

"Damn it. Never really been much of a boobs girl either." Wow, Kat was just totally off of her game tonight. She took a sip of her drink to try and settle some of her nerves.

"You use humor to hide your real emotions."

Kat almost chokes on her drink. And Adena just smiles at her.

"Okay. Alright." was all she managed to say. In an attempt to change the subject, she turns it back to Adena. "Hey, I'm gonna ask you a personal question." Adena gives a look of unwavering confidence and shrugs.

"Okay."

"Why do you still wear a hijab? Isn't it kind of contradictory?" Adena looks down for a moment, thinking, before answering.

"I _choose_ to wear the hijab. It does not oppress me but... liberates me... from society's expectations of what a woman should look like. People tend to get uncomfortable when they cannot put you in a box. But..." Adena says with a shrug, "I've always liked to make people uncomfortable." She smiles at Kat and raises an eyebrow. Kat has to stop a moment before she responds.

"Well, you're very good at it." She can't help but smile back, and their eyes lock. They laugh a little to clear the air, but neither says anything.

Nothing.

Kat's phone rings, and suddenly she is very aware of how far she was leaning towards Adena. She clears her throat and picks up her phone, thanking and cursing whoever was on the other end of the call. It was Jane "Oh, sorry, I should I should take this." Jane drunkenly explains that she is worried about Sutton, but, more importantly, that she was gonna puke and she needed kat to hold her hair back. Of course it'd be right now when she needed to leave.

"I'm sorry, I, uh, kind of have to go." Adena looks disappointed but turns away quickly and when she turns back her face is unreadable.

"Well, it's been very nice packing contraband with you, Kat Edison." Kat gets shivers when she says her name. Something in the ways she says it just... Kat pushed the thought back in her mind and holds out her hand.

"Yeah, you too, Adena El-Amin." They shake, but neither lets go. Kat wanted nothing more to stay longer and talk with this incredible, talented, beautiful girl. Before she could try anything, though, her mom-friend instincts kicked in. She stood up and grabbed her bag, keeping her eyes on her phone more to avoid eye contact than to check her phone itself. Before she can leave, though, Adena calls out to her. 

"Kat?" She looks like she wants to say something, like there was something she so desperately wanted to tell her. “You can print the article." Kat had forgotten the article entirely at this point. This must not have been easy for Adena. She would need to thank her somehow later. She made a mental note to check with reception to see if they could send a gift basket.

"Okay..." The two lock eyes again and Kat has to pull herself away one more time. "Thanks."

 

The smile on her face doesn't fall for ten blocks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love this show! This was written before 1x04, but my computer crashed and I lost all of my progress! I only just caught back up. 
> 
>  
> 
> Anyway, if enough people like this, I may do a fuller, AU fic where Adena is already a critically acclaimed artist with a limited social media presence, and what happens when she follows our favorite social media manager. ;D


	2. Something in the Sunlight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was just business. Adena knew she needed to expand her influence in the American art scene, and Kat Edison had convinced her that Scarlett was the best way to do that.
> 
> But something was making this more than just business. Something in the way that Kat talked about her job and her friends. Something about her infectious smile that lit up her whole face every time.
> 
> Something about the way the sunlight showered Kat in a golden radiance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! It has been a LONG time, but I felt really bad about leaving it hanging like that and I finally have some time on my hands, so I am gonna finish this fic! Soon, hopefully, but the holidays may make that harder. The last chapter may be a tad shorter, but we'll see.
> 
> I'm still new to this, so feedback is still welcome! 
> 
> No beta reader

Adena liked to think of herself as a woman with an iron will. It was, after all, what made her art so highly acclaimed. When the world refused to see things her way she forced the world to see it in her art. That was, of course, before she met Kat Edison. As much as she tried to fight it, Kat managed to make herself a part of Adena’s life. And now Firuze was telling her that Kat was asking about working on another article for the magazine, just a day after she was let back into the country after the scare at immigration and less than a week before her gallery opened.

 

It only took Adena five minutes to fit Kat into her schedule.

 

When Adena saw Kat round the corner, her mind blanked. Everything she wanted to say was gone, all of the ‘thank you’s, all of the ‘I’m sorry’s. Kat looked at her almost in disbelief, like she thought it was a dream. When Adena managed to break the ice, all she could manage was

“Surprise.”

Kat’s look of shock quickly formed into a smile at the words, and Adena could feel the nervousness melt away. It felt so natural to talk to her like they’d been doing it for months despite having met only two weeks ago.  
“Adena, hi... Good to see you.” Kat reached out her hand in greeting. Adena knit her brows together and frowned. Kat had stopped everything to help Adena out of trouble with immigration, letting her return to the US to attend her art gallery on time, and Kat still wanted to shake hands like business partners. Adena might not know all the signals in Kat’s culture, but she knew that that called for more than a handshake.

With a smile, she pulled Kat into a hug. Adena could feel her tense up, and for a moment she thought that she had gone too far, but then Kat’s tension dissipates and she hugged Adena back.“Oh my God.”

 

Kat led her into one of the meeting rooms off to the side before she started talking.

“After you got out, I texted you. A lot... So you better have a good excuse for ghosting me.” Kat teases. Adena’s mind goes back to the day she was released from the airport.

“Well, I don't know if it's a good excuse, but after I was detained at the airport, I received, um... An increase in death threats.” The threats were nothing new. Adena had been getting them ever since she started getting some recognition for her art. Everyone on her team was used to it by now. They still needed to take precautions though.  
“Oh, Adena...” Kat’s face drops, and she struggled to say something, but Adena quickly continued.

“It's okay, but, um, we've been hearing for a while that American immigration officers are looking through Muslims' phones, so I ditched mine.” The last thing Adena needed was to make Kat feel like she had any part in the death threats.

“That's probably the best excuse for not returning a text I have ever heard.” Kat said, eyes wide in disbelief.

“But I-... I want you to know that I did receive your picture.” Adena hadn’t meant to say it to make Kat uncomfortable, but evidently, it does. Kat’s mouth hangs open as she tries to come up with something to say, but nothing comes out.

“Oh... yeah, it was... that was stupid.” Kat says, interrupting her words before she can finish them. It’s cute. “I was trying to be funny.”

“It wasn't stupid,” Adena assured. “Maybe a little funny, but,” Adena moved her hand to her heart, and tapped it a few times, “you touched me here too.”

The look Kat gave Adena hit her like a truck. It was impossible to describe, but she couldn’t stop trying to place it. The smallest, softest of smiles graced Kat’s lips, and she looked at Adena like, at that moment, she could see her heart through her chest. There was something about the way you could see her smile in her whole face. Something to be said of the way her eyes shone with such affection. Something in the sunlight as it filtered through the blinds and cast Kat in a golden radiance. Adena wanted nothing more than to capture the moment in a photo and look at it every moment she had. Kat looked into her eyes and Adena looked back, and for a moment they sat in silence.

Then Kat’s phone buzzed and the moment was broken, but the feeling it gave Adena remained. She blinked and looked down, clearing her head, and Kat checked to make sure the message wasn’t important. Adena tried to switch the conversation to something less personal, to start thinking about anything other than the way Kat looked in that moment.

“Anyway, my manager told me that you needed something from me for the magazine?”

Kat blinked and looked up from her phone, a smile forming on her lips once more.

“Oh, right, yeah, uh, your article was really popular, so we want to do a little follow-up interview. If you could sit down with one of our writers, I think Alex probably has some time?” Kat said, hope enunciating every word. Adena cursed at herself for making herself busy so soon after getting back, but she couldn’t change anything at this point.

“I have to run today, but Thursday I have a show. It's downtown at a gallery.If he can come to that, I would love to speak to him.”

Kat’s face goes from disappointment to excitement as she learns that she can still do the interview.  
“Totally, totally ‘Scarlet’.”  Her face lights up and she smiles so big that Adena can feel herself back in that moment, lit up in the sun. Adena knows she shouldn’t do this to herself. Kat was ‘out-and-proud hetero’. Even if Adena just wanted to be friends, she knew herself too well. She was going to fall in love with the straight girl again, but… what was the harm in just one night? Kat was partially responsible for all the publicity of her gallery, after all.

“Okay, and Kat. You should come too.”

There was a moment of painful silence just before Kat grinned again, lighting up her whole face in her smile.  
“I'd like that.”

Just one night.

 

This was going to be a long night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How was that? Feel free to comment, I love getting feedback.
> 
> Still thinking about doing that social media AU, but I need a bit more solid plot before I commit. If anyone is still interested, let me know.


	3. Moon and Sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kat finally confronts Adena, and the two of them finally give in to the light they see in each other.
> 
> (The moment in the show may have been dramatic and emotional, but I went ahead and read into it a little more and turned it up. Could be seen as a little less canon.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally finished! Let me know how I did in the Comments, this is the first multi-chapter fic I've done!  
> It doesn't really come up, but I imagine this world as an AU where Coco and Adena were just good friends, and the scene at the gallery was just a misunderstanding.
> 
> I talk a little about my next project at the end. 
> 
> Enjoy!

How had it come to this? Kat’s life was so much easier, so less intense a few weeks ago. Now she was standing in front of Adena’s apartment, letter of recommendation in hand, and she still needed a few minutes to get ready before she rang the buzzer. And when Adena opened the door, a look of shock on her face? Kat’s heart leapt into her throat and then dropped to her stomach.

“Kat?” Adena looked taken aback, like she couldn’t believe that Kat was really in front of her. Kat looked down and swallowed the lump in her throat before she stared right into Adena’s eyes.

“I owe you an apology.”  
Adena’s face softened. She walked through the doorway, moving to stand in front of Kat in the cold night air, and Kat continued. "You were right. We are from different worlds. And... I really want you to stay in mine.” For a moment, Kat lost herself in the way that Adena looks at her, but she broke eye contact and continued. “So I wrote you a letter.” Kat pulled out her recommendation, _Scarlet_ in big red letters at the top, and handed it to Adena. The woman shook her head a little and the corner of her lips curled up.

“Way more than 140 characters.” Adena smiled, but before she can say anything else Kat continued, determined to finish the lines she had rehearsed so many times in the mirror and on the walk over and on the street before Adena opened the door.”

“I wrote about how uniquely talented you are and how valuable your art is because that's what Immigration needs to hear.”

“That's perfect.”

 There was silence.

Adena looked at her like she was waiting for Kat to say something, but Kat couldn’t find the words. The moon might have been hidden behind the New York skyline, but the white light from the apartment cast Adena in the same silver glow from that first night. All the feelings flooded back to her, all the things she wanted to say, all the things she was waiting for the right moment to say.

And Kat just couldn’t take any more waiting.

“But what I really wanted to say was was just... How amazing you are," Words started pouring out of her mouth before she could even register it. "You're courageous and thoughtful and honest," words she hadn’t practiced or rehearsed or thought of anywhere but in the part of her mind she had so desperately tried to hide. "...and you're the only person I've ever met who..." words she hadn't known she wanted so badly to say. "...you know, completely throws me off my game. And... I... ” Kat’s mouth opened and closed, but her train of thought had reached its final destination, and Kat was not quite sure she was ready to go there.

But Adena was staring at her in a kind of awe that made it impossible to resist, and Kat found herself finally saying what she’d been thinking for months.

“I think I really like you.”

 

* * *

 

“We are from different worlds. And... I really want you to stay in mine.”

Adena raised her eyebrow at the comment. It sounded… poetic, and beautiful, and… romantic. She blinked away the thought and focused on what Kat was saying. When Kat handed her the letter, Adena let herself smile a little as the woman explained what she had said on Adena’s behalf. Kat had proven, once again, the lengths she would go to maintain their friendship.

“It’s perfect,” Adena said with a smile. _Kat_  was perfect.

There was a short period of silence before Kat began talking again, this time more hurried and unsure. She spoke about how amazing Adena was, and how Adena threw her off her game, and…

“I… I think I really like you,” Kat said the words like a confession, like she had wanted to fight it but had failed. Adena tried to think of something to say but nothing came out. What could she say to that?

In the quiet of the night the old, yellow streetlight turned on and illuminated Kat in a golden radiance that reminded Adena of that day in the _Scarlet_ offices when she tried to deny her feelings for Kat. And suddenly she knew that there was nothing that she could say.

Adena reached out to caress Kat’s face, pulling her closer. There is but a second of confusion, and then an understanding, as Adena looks into Kat’s eyes and then at her mouth.

Their lips met and the sensation is everything. The kiss was soft, but not delicate. It was determined, but not forceful. Their lips were locked, unmoving as both women unleashed all the energy, all the feelings they had denied into this one kiss that they shared. Adena could feel Kat almost shaking at the release of all the tension she had been carrying, her hands tracing their way to Adena’s neck and shoulder in search of something to hold on to.

Kat pulled away first, and the look she gave almost broke Adena’s heart. It was unreadable and impossible to describe and Adena knew it all too well. Confusion, hope, fear, the sense of something right, the sense of something wrong, the sense of something new. Realization. Adena curled her fingers behind Kat’s neck and locked eyes with her. And in that moment she shared everything she knew: that the confusion stops, the hope beats the fear, that the something new is something right, and that everything will turn out okay.

Kat’s eyes began to sparkle just the tiniest amount, but she smiled. She closed her eyes and reintroduced their lips.

 

And, for a little while, they stayed like that - in a world of their own making, kissing in the light of the moon and the sun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So how was that? I'd love to hear feedback. I'm not sure how I feel about the end bit, it might be a tad dramatic.
> 
> I wanted to draw them either as the Moon and the Sun, or a street shot of the two under their respective lights, but I'm terrible so I'll have to use words. Maybe I'll commission it sometime.
> 
>  
> 
> My next work is probably going to be a long form social-media style AU, let me know if there is anything you want to see! 
> 
> You can also find me on Tumblr, if you want, at @lighthousefeminism (The same as here). I post gay shit mostly, fandom stuff sometimes, and I usually make a post when I post stuff here (Plus I sometimes post ask prompts).
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
